kirtu wrote:This is extremely shocking. Why don't they organize trash services and recycling? Dumping plastic in water, streams, rivers and creeks??? This is unbelievable and horrifying.

Kirt

Corruption. Incompetence. India's government is full of crooks. Nepal I imagine is the same. Everyone is looking out for themselves. It isn't enough to get bribed. They want to embezzle money from the coffers as well at the expense of the people. If you allocated money for trash services and recycling, it might look plausibly easy enough to do, but then every man from the top down wants his cut and by the time it comes to actually doing the work who knows what will get done. There is a huge culture of corruption. It is kaliyuga as described in Hindu texts down to the letter in many cases.

Most of India looks like this. Nepal isn't -as- bad though. Open fields tend to get littered, though mounds of trash on the side of streets isn't as bad as this. They keep places like Boudha around the stupa pretty nice. Thammel, the backpacker ghetto, is alright, too.

Adamantine wrote:yup. there's no good garbage disposal system and it's mostly because of corrupt and incompetent politicians - of which there's way too many.. nothing ever gets accomplished.

the roads are all terrible too... despite donations from wealthy countries to fix them.. the money just gets eaten by the politicians..

maoist integration seems to have paralyzed things further, rather than solving anything..

I don't think an environmental movement will catch on anytime soon there, sadly.

It is amazing that anything got built as it is.

People on the subcontinent have a strong unbelievable tolerance for corrupt government. I mean so do a lot of people elsewhere in the world, but the fact that your own basic standard of living is visibly hurt by their corruption, yet you still don't do anything.

Nepal is a resource rich country like India. It just doesn't get shared. You see the worst of this phenomenon in Delhi where you have brand new SUVs and Rollex shops around Connaught Place with people literally dying of disease and malnutrition a stone's throw away. Interestingly, despite Nepal being poorer than India, you don't see it as bad around Kathmandu.

How is this possible? The reason environmentalism caught on in Germany across class and party affiliation is because Germans are tree worshipers. Once it was shown that, yes, the trees in the forest really were being harmed by pollution then environmental focus changed almost overnight. In Hawaii there was the usual opposition to implementing changes in order to clean up the environment and in order to keep it from degrading. But a broad coalition across Hawaiian society developed led initially by surfers. But in Hawaii if you say privately that if we consciously pollute then nature spirits will become unhappy, this is not unusual (it just used to be unusual for haoles [white people] to say)- it is accepted as fact in many parts of society.

In Nepal and presumably India the same exact idea should still be supportable but one invokes nagas rather than nature spirits.

This is why it is incomprehensible to me that people just dump trash, esp. plastic trash, along the road and in water.

kirtu wrote:In Nepal and presumably India the same exact idea should still be supportable but one invokes nagas rather than nature spirits.

This is why it is incomprehensible to me that people just dump trash, esp. plastic trash, along the road and in water.

Kirt

This is kaliyuga down to the definition. If Indians and Nepalis cared how nagas reacted, the Ganges and most bodies of water wouldn't be full of plastic trash, untreated human waste and industrial pollutants.

If you've never been to India or Nepal, it might be a bit of a shock to see all of this. Again Nepal is a lot better than India, but still not exactly inclined towards environmentalism.

Environmentalism isn't a concern. Economic development is. If this means people breath in poison and the water supplies are toxic while plastic waste fills up the rivers, then so be it. Some Indians and Nepalis might advocate for environmentalism, but almost nobody cares.

I had this idea of paying the poor a certain fixed price for all the plastic rubbish they could bring in (like recycling), which would mean the poor get some money and the country become spotless overnight. However, implementing something like that would prove very difficult given the climate of corruption.

On the bright side, though, places like Leh and Dharamsala have banned plastic bags. They give you cloth bags instead. It cuts down on drains being overfilled with heaps of rubbish.

Hello Lotwell, and sorry for taking so long to respond. I have the articles in hard-copy form (I get the journal), but have no idea whether it can be read as an e-text. But any good university library should have it.

Your plan to build up language skills before joining an MA program sounds like a good one. You mention Sanskrit, Nepali, Tibetan, and Chinese--these are a lot of languages, three of which are difficult (Nepali being the easy one), and you may find it necessary to choose among them. Sanskrit and Tibetan, Sanskrit and Chinese, and Tibetan and Chinese are all good combinations, but they suggest different study programs. If you have the opportunity to visit prospective schools before deciding, that would be great.

What program are you thinking about joining in Chengdu? Is it with a university? Kham Aid (http://www.khamaid.org) may be looking for volunteers to teach English in Szechuan, among other skills they need. That would be a way to learn languages too, if you can handle living in China.

I'll try to see if I can't get ahold of those articles somehow. My university library doesn't have access to them...

You're right - those are the three main groupings of those languages available. I figure if I expose myself to equal doses of all of them I will fall in love with one over the others. It seems like Sanskrit should be a must for almost all Buddhist scholars though.

I'm planning a trip... 2-3 months in Kathmandu and 2-3 months in Chengdu with several goals in mind. 1) Study language (although I'm a bit stuck on finding short term programs/intensive courses during the fall in both places) 2) Check out possible universities (right now only Rangjung Yeshe Inst. is on my radar though). and 3) to just experience the places, cultures, etc.

Thank you for that link. I used to teach english and would like to combine that with this trip as well.

and as for Huseng ... you summed it pretty well when you said "Kali Yuga"

I'll try to see if I can't get ahold of those articles somehow. My university library doesn't have access to them...

You're right - those are the three main groupings of those languages available. I figure if I expose myself to equal doses of all of them I will fall in love with one over the others. It seems like Sanskrit should be a must for almost all Buddhist scholars though.

I'm planning a trip... 2-3 months in Kathmandu and 2-3 months in Chengdu with several goals in mind. 1) Study language (although I'm a bit stuck on finding short term programs/intensive courses during the fall in both places) 2) Check out possible universities (right now only Rangjung Yeshe Inst. is on my radar though). and 3) to just experience the places, cultures, etc.

Thank you for that link. I used to teach english and would like to combine that with this trip as well.

and as for Huseng ... you summed it pretty well when you said "Kali Yuga"

Cheers and deep bows,

Lotwell

You might want to check out SiChuan University in Chengdu for Tibetan Language programs.

You can follow through the ranking reports from the website and can pick any of them for your higher studies. For your brief knowledge – the website has ranking of world universities means you can check top 500 and top 100 universities of United States, Asia, Middle East etc.

Are you looking for ranking of world universities? Then look no further, log on to eduroute.info to see top ranked universities (top 100 and top 500 ranking) of different places such as US (America), Asia, Europe, even the entire world.

Tenzin1 wrote:U of Washington, Seattle, has an MA program in Tibetan Buddhism, if you're looking for an academic approach. It sounds like you may not be, however. All graduate programs require a minimum of two foreign languages relevant to the field. You need to be able to do research on original texts. Often, a reading knowledge of some European languages is also required, also for research purposes.

I know this is an old thread, but as far as I know, University of Washington cancelled their Tibetan program. Same thing that people have been talking about here, school finances. Their Sanskrit program is still solid and very good.

University of Virginia and the ivy league schools are the best bet if anyone's looking for an academic career -- they get jobs. But University of Virginia only has a Ph.d program in Tibetan, no MA, iirc.

I met a student who studied with Ann Klein at Rice University, and heard only good things. She works her students very, very hard:

lotwell wrote:Just to let you all know, I was accepted in to Rangjung Yeshe's MA program. Always on the lookout for other (namely US) programs though.

Lotwell

Awesome.

I think Rangjung Yeshe is a good college overall, but it is up to you whether you really get something out of it. I've heard from multiple sources that the college sometimes hosts questionable students. Kathmandu is a party town and has all the facilities for it at low cost. Think backpackers, drug users and youth away from home in Asia.

Thank you guys! Yes, I'm very excited to start studying. I'll keep you updated. Yes I also pray the political situation doesn't worsen.

Huseng wrote:Awesome.

I think Rangjung Yeshe is a good college overall, but it is up to you whether you really get something out of it. I've heard from multiple sources that the college sometimes hosts questionable students. Kathmandu is a party town and has all the facilities for it at low cost. Think backpackers, drug users and youth away from home in Asia.

I know you have experssed this concern before Huseng and I understand it. I'm the happiest when I get lost in my studies so I don't think this will be an issue. I'm not all that interested in exploring the rest of Nepal or really even Kathmandu. I work for some Nepalis now so free time allotted for meeting new people/social interactions will be spent on with the people they want me to connect with.

lotwell wrote:Thank you guys! Yes, I'm very excited to start studying. I'll keep you updated. Yes I also pray the political situation doesn't worsen.

Huseng wrote:Awesome.

I think Rangjung Yeshe is a good college overall, but it is up to you whether you really get something out of it. I've heard from multiple sources that the college sometimes hosts questionable students. Kathmandu is a party town and has all the facilities for it at low cost. Think backpackers, drug users and youth away from home in Asia.

I know you have experssed this concern before Huseng and I understand it. I'm the happiest when I get lost in my studies so I don't think this will be an issue. I'm not all that interested in exploring the rest of Nepal or really even Kathmandu. I work for some Nepalis now so free time allotted for meeting new people/social interactions will be spent on with the people they want me to connect with.

Lotwell

I have to admit, I've been sniffing around Rangjung Yeshe since late 90s. So "keep us up to date" translates to "yes, really, let me know, because I'd like to do this, too." My professors at UVA support the idea -- if I can afford the program. Mostly they want me to live with a Tibetan family, and they say that the RY's translator program has you live with families who are screened and genuinely interested in the students learning Tibetan. (Rather than thinking of you as live-in English practice, heh. I've had that happen.)